Thursday, March 30, 2017

Nematullah Haidari has been appointed as the Deputy Minister for Management and Finance, Ministry of Public Works, Government of Afghanistan by Dr. Ashraf Ghani, President of Afghanistan .

Mr. Haidari received his master’s from the University of Hartford specializing in Transportation Engineering. Mr. Haidari started his education at the University of Hartford in Fall 2009 and completed his master’s degree with an impressive grade point average (GPA) of 4.0 out of 4.0.

The faculty and administration of the University of Hartford are proud of Mr. Haidari’s accomplishments and wish him success in his new endeavor.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Paul Slaboch, assistant professor of mechanical
engineering in the College of Engineering, Technology and Architecture
(CETA) published a paper in a recent volume of the ASME Journal of
Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power. The paper, entitled "Effect of
Aft Rotor on the Inter-Rotor Flow of an Open Rotor Propulsion System",
was published with NASA colleagues after presenting the paper at the
ASME TurboExpo in Seoul, South Korea this past summer.

The open rotor aircraft engine promises increased efficiency over the
current generation of jet engines, but a few problems have stalled the
deployment of these machines. One of the largest problems is the noise
generated by the engine. Much of the noise is generated by the
interaction of the flow between the two rotors and the aft rotor. This
paper describes the fluid mechanics of the inter-rotor region of the
engine and also validated a computational fluid dynamics code being used
to predict the noise of future engines.

This work led to a follow up project that has recently been funded by
the NASA CT Space Grant Consortium. The Faculty Research Grant was
funded for $20,000 to further study the inter-rotor flow field. This
grant will support graduate and undergraduate students who will work
with Prof. Slaboch to determine the effects of the aft rotor on the
forward rotor blade wakes.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Matthew Garneau '19 and a local
technician work on a water pump installation.

Stephen (Tyler) Arnold '19, Matthew
Garneau '19, David Piekut '19, and Daniel Wietsman '19, with a water tank
installed by UHart students nearly 10 years ago, and bearing the University's
name in Hindi.

For elementary school children
living in villages outside of New Delhi, India, learning in dim light and
sweltering classrooms has become a way of life. With limited access to water
and electricity, teachers often choose between holding classes in the hot,
humid outdoors or using kerosene lamps indoors with their inherent fire and air
quality risks. A group of students in the College
of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture,
led by civil engineering major Matthew Garneau ’19, set out to improve this
difficult learning environment by increasing the water and power supply in two
local schools.

This was Matthew’s second trip to
India during winter break, and his first leading the team as vice president of
the University’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter. “I wanted to return to India in a leadership role
because our efforts made such a dramatic difference to the quality of the
children’s school days,” says Matthew of South Windsor, Conn., who, during his
first trip in 2015, installed faster well pumps and Uninterruptable Power
Systems (UPS) in primary schools.

“Power is turned on for a maximum of
only two hours a day, so classrooms are almost dark, and the heat makes it
difficult for students to concentrate,” Matthew says. “Limited access to power
also means less water will be available, since well pumps needs electricity to
run,” he explains.

Over the course of nearly two weeks,
Matthew directed the team as it installed higher-powered water pumps and UPS'
in two government primary schools in the villages of Rithoj and Raisena,
located about an hour outside of New Delhi. Matthew, who has been running his
own landscaping company for four years, oversaw local technicians and worked
with translators to negotiate prices at local parts suppliers.

“We did most of the engineering and
measurement work for the installations at CETA, so we made only minor
calculation adjustments to better fit both systems,“ Matthew points out. The
students also had opportunities to interact with villagers and learn firsthand
about Indian culture.

Professor of Civil and Environmental
Engineering David Pines, who oversees EWB at UHart, notes the students not only
successfully implemented these sustainable engineering missions, they also
checked in on longer term work he and other UHart students have completed over
the 10 years the chapter has been traveling to the country, and surveyed sites
where future well pumps and UPS systems can be installed.

EWB projects at the University have
been steadily growing. Pines and another team of students visited Kenya’s Lake
Region over spring break, continuing efforts to dramatically improve the
harvesting process for farmers using a threshing machine designed by a UHart
student (read more here).
The chapter, which has expanded to include the Hartford EWB Professional
Chapter and the Hartford Art School, is working on three new challenging projects. Matthew is on board with all of
them, as he plans to run for chapter president next year.

“All EWB members serve as important
links to projects that give us the chance to apply practical knowledge,
sometimes even before we learn the theory behind it,” he says. “Providing
solutions to world problems helps us go from being students to being engineers.”

Friday, March 17, 2017

The word “prestigious” cannot be
used lightly because it denotes high opinion and honor. Yet the word applies
triple time to Master of Architecture (MArch) student Fahed
Baker, M’17. He is a prestigious Fulbright Scholar and two-time winner of the
prestigious International Architecture Award presented by the World
Architecture Community. Fulbright Scholars receive highly-competitive,
merit-based grants for international educational exchange. Eight thousand
grants are given annually worldwide for graduate study, advanced research,
university lecturing, and classroom teaching.

The International Architecture
Awards honors designs, built and unbuilt, that recognize architecture as a high
art while answering complicated problems of environment, social context,
quality of life, and sustainability. Fahed won the 2017 award for his design of
a mosque. He received the 2016 accolade for his creative interpretation of a
modern Italian piazza. The projects were completed following visits to
Florence, Italy and Montreal, Canada as part of Architectural Studio III, a
second-year graduate course.

The 2017 award is particularly
meaningful to Fahed, who came to the University’s College
of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) in 2015 from
politically-conflicted Gaza, a small territory located on the eastern coast of
the Mediterranean Sea between Israel and Egypt. Leaving behind his wife, three
young daughters, and an established architectural business, he felt compelled
to explore the latest technologies in western design and fabrication in hopes
of one day helping to rebuild Gaza’s fragile infrastructure.

“Gaza continues to confront unique
architectural challenges because of the conflicts it has endured,” Fahed says.
“Restoring the infrastructure of schools, mosques, and other landmarks will
result in greater unification among people and improved economic opportunities.
This award confirms I can be a vital contributor to such a goal.”

Fahed says he chose a tranquil
design for the mosque project, which he titled ‘Transcendence of Light’. “I
drew inspiration from the Muslim belief that emphasizes light as a mark of
God’s presence. The openness of the mosque and the light leaning in invites all
people to come in and learn about a peaceful, transparent, and welcoming faith
while speaking to the architectural context of cities in the 21st
century,” he explains.

The CETA MArch program is one of
only two (Yale) in Connecticut that is nationally accredited by the National
Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB), a factor Fahed says gave him peace of
mind in deciding to study at UHart. “I discovered most state registration
boards require a degree from an NAAB-accredited program as a prerequisite for
architectural licensure, which I plan to pursue,” he says.

Architecture Graduate Program
Director Daniel Davis considers Fahed’s award-winning designs innovative and
professional. “Fahed is capable well beyond his years and the architecture
faculty is immensely proud of his accomplishments,” says Davis. “Not only has
he brought international attention to our graduate program,
but he is also a natural teacher, mentoring both our international and domestic
students while he continues exploring diverse academic topics.”

One such topic is developing
parametric models for mapping weather data with University Assistant Professor
of Architecture Seth Holmes and Assistant Professor of Architecture Nicholas
Rajkovich of the University of Buffalo, the research of which is on its way to
being published and submitted to the 2017 Building Simulation Conference.

Fahed has mentored students at
Islamic University of Gaza, where he earned his undergraduate degree. He plans
to pursue his doctorate in architecture so he can teach after he spends time
“solving human problems. This is why I push the boundaries of design and
building.”

He is motivated by the thought of
reuniting with his family following the 2017 commencement ceremony. “They have
the greater courage. They have given me a gift in allowing me to focus in-depth
on my passion. These awards are for them and because of them.”

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Tom Eppes, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Ivana Milanovic,
professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering,
Technology, and Architecture (CETA), have published an article in the
Academic Journal of Science (AJS) Vol. 6, No. 1. The IJAS publishes
original contributions on all aspects of science from the academic
perspective.

The paper, "Development of Hybrid Courses by Applying Best Practices from the Online Environment"
describes how four on-ground engineering courses were transformed into a
hybrid mode using best practices found in online environment.

The objective was to overcome two major teaching issues present in
the courses: (1) over-reliance on advanced mathematical tools that
hampered students understanding of the underlying principles, and (2)
the absence of immersive and exciting visuals. In these hybrid courses,
facilitation is required on the part of the instructor while the student
must become more active in the learning process.

The result was an integrated learning environment (face-to-face and
online) with comprehensive information sources, a knowledgebase, and
experiential learning elements. In addition, modeling, simulation,
visualization, and application building are incorporated to further
extend learning outcomes.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Assistant Professor Eoin King Elected to Board of Directors for the Institute of Noise Control Engineering of the USA

Eoin
King, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and acoustics in
the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA), was
recently elected to the Board of Directors for the Institute of Noise
Control Engineering of the USA (INCE-USA).

As the only professional society devoted solely to Noise Control
Engineering, INCE-USA provides a unique forum for technical exchange,
networking, and professional growth. INCE-USA provides a wide range of
services to it's nearly 1,000 Members and Associates and is also a
Member Society of the International Institute of Noise Control
Engineering, an international consortium of organizations with interests
in acoustics and noise control.

King was elected following his position as Technical Chair of NOISE-CON
2016, the INCE national conference, which was held in Rhode Island in
June 2016.